Thursday, March 18, 2010

I don't have a pot to piss in, but I would give more tax money to insure every American has a chance at health care. And the very fact that I even have to write the word "chance" is indicative of a glaring omission from the bill that's on the table, and that omission is the public option. That option will never be considered, at least in our lifetimes, so the current bill is the one we're stuck with.

It was, if memory serves, a Republican who said, correctly, that the essential difference in this debate about health care is whether you consider health coverage a right or a privilege. Well, I believe it's a right. And, if I take a quick glance around at Britain, Canada, France, Japan, and most of the industrialized world, I don't think I'm too far off of what most populations think. In that guarantee of the physical well-being of every citizen, we find a communal agreement that used to be an integral part of American society (special bonus quiz: resurrect your great grandfather and ask him about health care. And, when he wiped the cobwebs from his barren eye sockets and shouted "Health WHAT?," feel free to shoot him in the head with a musket because all zombies should be killed).

This is more of a race issue than most will admit. The argument goes "I don't want to have to pay for health care for THEM." Ok. That's a fair point. But who fights your wars? You see a lot of trust fund kids swarming to the front line? Be realistic.

We are a first world nation with a third world mentality about health care. In theory, it should be better here. It isn't.